I changed the brake fluid in my '87 300D Turbo (W124, OM603) today and thought that the unexpected golden color of the newly-installed fluid was worth sharing.

The new fluid (Castrol synthetic DOT3/4) has almost no color as it comes out of the bottle but in the reservoir it looks rather yellow. This turns out to be the "fault" of the reservoir, which is 23 years old and has yellowed over the years. There may also be a little emphasis towards the red end of the color spectrum due to the flashlight I used to illuminate the fluid.

The old fluid (non-synthetic DOT3) had also yellowed since it was installed in 2007; the combination of the old fluid in the old reservoir looked really bad (should have photographed the old fluid also).

The photo gives me something to compare to in a couple of years. In the future I'll pull a sample with an eyedropper rather than relying on the apparent color in the reservoir.

Jeremy

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"Buster" in the '95

Our all-Diesel family
1996 E300D (W210) . .338,000 miles Wife's car
2005 E320 CDI . . 113,000 miles My car
Santa Rosa population 176,762 (2022)
Total. . . . . . . . . . . . 627,762
"Oh lord won't you buy me a Mercedes Benz."
-- Janis Joplin, October 1, 1970